You may have never heard the term travel Continuing Care Assistant or travel Licensed Practical Nurse but it has become more common in Saskatchewan for LPNs and CCAs already working in the province. These are health care staff who are hired from outside of the province to staff the health care system but they get paid more than those already working here.

That’s according to the Canadian Union of Public Employees that says it has documents which show the provincial government is contracting out work to private staffing solution companies in health care. CUPE says this includes more than $730,000 for Licensed Practical Nurses in just one region of the province.

CUPE says the top of the Continuing Care Assistant (CCA) wage scale is $24.84 an hour in Saskatchewan. Meanwhile, a job posting for a travel CCA posted by Gratitude Canada, a company providing staffing solutions for Saskatchewan-based workers, offers a wage scale of $28-$32 per hour, plus travel, accommodations, and a meal allowance. In addition to CCAs and LPNs, CUPE says private contractors have also been hired for Medical Technologist and Technician and Health Information Practitioner positions across the province.

President of CUPE 5430 is Bashir Jalloh who says the situation is now compounded by those lower paid workers contemplating signing on with the company which is hiring these “travel workers” so they, themselves, can go to work outside of the province further exacerbating the problem of lack of health care workers in Saskatchewan.